Sandy Ganzell author page
2 puzzles by Sandy Ganzell
with Constructor comments
| G | R | E | G | G | G | A | S | I | S | N | O | T | ||
| R | E | T | I | E | L | I | T | C | H | O | I | R | ||
| A | L | O | F | T | O | D | E | L | O | W | L | Y | ||
| D | O | N | T | H | A | V | E | A | C | O | W | |||
| I | E | R | E | M | U | U | M | U | U | |||||
| H | U | D | D | L | E | E | D | E | N | S | ||||
| S | H | E | E | P | S | H | E | A | D | W | A | S | ||
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| C | U | B | W | H | I | T | E | H | O | R | S | E | ||
| L | I | A | N | A | N | A | E | N | A | E | ||||
| S | E | N | O | R | A | G | I | R | L | |||||
| O | L | D | M | A | C | D | O | N | A | L | D | |||
| E | I | E | I | O | A | W | L | L | O | O | I | E | ||
| B | R | A | N | S | Z | O | E | D | E | N | S | E | ||
| B | E | T | T | E | E | L | F | S | L | E | P | T |
As a native of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn who studies knots for a living (seriously), I debated the merits of SHEEPSHEAD vs. SHEEPSHANK for a long time. Ultimately the decision came down to filling the rest of the grid. I ended up stuck with HSBC and IERE, both of which are awful, but less awful than the alternative.
The theme came to me after hearing the (truly awful) joke, "What is a horse's favorite dance move?" I responded with "What does a cow wear to a luau?" and then "What is a sheep's favorite rum-soaked sponge cake?" OK, the last one I just made up. But then I made the connection with the theme song (the song that makes the puzzle's theme) and the rest was a matter of fill. The theme put a surprising amount of stress on the puzzle geometry, but I hope you like the result.
What is my cat's favorite thing to scratch at 5am? Me. Ow!
Lastly, coach Popovich, if you're reading this, I had you in mind for 1-Across but the editors preferred the other Gregg. Go Sagehens!
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| A | L | A | M | O | D | E | A | U | T | E | U | R | S | |
| C | A | R | I | O | L | E | K | I | R | S | T | I | E | |
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| C | L | O | S | E | N | U | M | B | P | A | R | T | ||
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| U | R | N | R | O | O | S | T | E | R | O | L | E | ||
| E | V | I | C | T | S | I | O | N | E | T | I | N | ||
| L | A | S | H | M | E | N | U | E | J | E | C | T | ||
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| R | A | I | N | O | U | T | I | S | R | A | E | L | I | |
| E | X | E | C | U | T | E | S | H | I | N | D | I | G | |
| P | I | N | E | T | A | R | T | E | A | S | I | N | G | |
| O | S | T | S | H | Y | S | N | L | T | O | Y |
This is my first published puzzle. I'm pretty excited about my debut, but I think my dad is more excited. I remember him and my mom working on the Sunday Times puzzle when I was young, but I never had much interest in crosswords myself. It wasn't until I was about thirty that I started solving these things (with some help from my sister). Five years later I started constructing amusing (or at least mildly inappropriate) puzzles for my friends, usually to celebrate New Year's. We also play crossword puzzle charades, where we take turns pantomiming the clues and then putting the answers into an empty solution grid.
This puzzle bears little resemblance to my original submission. In fact, with the exception of three short theme answers, there's nothing left of the original. Even the grid size is different. If you're interested, take a look at the original 15x16 puzzle.
I started with the idea of squeezing extra words into a grid where they didn't fit. The entire theme would consist of unclued answers that had to be thin enough (literally) to squeeze in. I thought of (skinny) JEANS, (narrow) BRIDGE, (narrow) MARGIN, (lean) BEEF, (thin) line, (thin) ICE, (thin) AIR and (slim) CHANCE. Once I settled on 5 symmetric theme answers I had to go 16 wide with JEANS in the middle.
But Will thought the grid would look best if entire columns were thin instead of just individual answers. So…basically a complete rewrite. I'm still not sure which I like better, but Will and Joel were very helpful with the overhaul. I hope you like how it turned out.